Directed by: Jay Levey
Starring: "Weird Al" Yankovic, Victoria Jackson, Kevin McCarthy, Gedde Watanabe, David Bowe, Michael Richards, Trinidad Silva, Anthony Geary
UHF is a parody of 1980's television strung together by a threadbare plot. It hurls gags at you, not quite in Airplane! style, but close enough. It's hit and miss, but while funny in spots, it never extends into comedy gold. Aside from cameos in the Naked Gun movies, this is the only film I can think of to date starring song parodist extraordinaire "Weird Al" Yankovic. He plays George Newman, who is fired from job after job until being handed a local UHF station to run by his uncle who won the station in a card game.
Channel 62 wants ratings, but how can a station barely on the dial compete with the network affiliate run by the malevolent R.J. Fletcher (McCarthy), who laughs off Channel 62 until George's oddball programming propels it to number one in the ratings. A big part of this turnaround is Stanley Spadowski (Richards), a former janitor fired by Fletcher who is given his own children's show on George's channel which goes through the roof. The rest of the movie involves Fletcher's attempts to buy the station and put Channel 62 out of business while George attempts to win back his former girlfriend Teri (Jackson) who wants him to get his life in order.
The shows on the channel include Wheel of Fish, Gandhi: The Return, and a wildlife show recorded in a barrio apartment, which are somewhere between amusing and goofy and held together by Yankovic's nerdy charm. Richards, pre-Seinfeld, gathers the most laughs as the janitor/children's show host who loves both in equal measure. UHF isn't a comedy gem, but it's worth the ninety minutes if you don't have much else to do one afternoon.
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